ARTICLES ABOUT POLITICS BY DATE - PAGE 2

Romney is red, Obama is blue Pick a side before Election night And choose where you view Those of you who can't stomach the idea of watching the election's results unfold next to someone from the opposite party are in luck: this year there will be both Republican and Democratic viewing parties in the Windy City. Members of Romney's camp can head to the Wit on Nov. 6. That's where the official Republican Party viewing event will be held--according to Chicago Young Republicans chair Angel Garcia, the event is sponsored by the Illinois Republican Party, Chicago Young Republicans, Chicago Republicans and Dan Rutherford, who is chair of the Romney campaign in Illinois.

True story: I didn't know crap about politics until 2004. During the 2000 election, I was a newly minted high school sophomore strictly focused on football and getting laid as soon as possible. Buckling down on the political coverage, I found myself completely bored and/or overwhelmed by the whole thing, especially the debates. Now, there might be some of you out there that are currently in the same boat I was back then. Listen, this stuff isn't easy, but it is important. I'm not going to talk down and scold you for not being aware of the political climate in this country.

If someone would have walked up to Jay-Z on the day he started his rap career and said, "One day, the president of the United States will introduce you at your own music festival," I am sure Young Hov would not have believed it. Yet nobody seemed to find this surprise unusual when it happened in Philadelphia during Labor Day weekend. Well, except the angry folks who vented online about President Obama "hanging out with an ex-drug dealer. " Those folks seem to have forgotten that George H.W. Bush once invited the "original gangster," Eazy-E, to the White House for grub back in 1991.

Lately, a lot of hash has been made over Todd Aiken's remarks that “women's bodies have a way to shut that whole thing down” in reference to pregnancies that occur from rape. This has opened a whole Pandora's Box of tight-rope-walking comments from Republican candidates with Mitt Romney fumbling towards an exception for cases of rape and the Republican platform vowing to outlaw abortion with no exceptions. Witness Republican senatorial candidate Tom Smith of Pennsylvania, currently facing an uphill battle against incumbent Bob Casey, botch this question from a reporter: ASSOCIATED PRESS: How would you tell a daughter or a granddaughter who, God forbid, would be the victim of a rape, to keep the child against her own will?

The "T" in LGBT is at its tipping point. In their own fight for equal rights, transgender people are now more than ever confronting issues head-on in politics, pop culture and the workplace. "The United States is starting to really come around," said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, which was founded in 2003. "In Chicago, you have a city government that's pretty good and state government that's pretty good and a president from Illinois who is committed to advancing equal rights for trans people.

Nearly every weekend from now until September, at least one strip of Chicago's streets will be clogged as the Windy City's dozens of festivals take over the thoroughfares for the summer. Hot spots like Wicker Park will surrender their streets many more times, and for most of the city's residents, that's a great thing. McKinley Park resident Justin Kerr, however, isn't sold on the idea. It's not the festivals themselves that get the 42-year-old web developer's blood boiling. It's their so called suggested donations, which Kerr asserts are increasingly being treated as more of a mandatory entrance fee. "They channel you through these long lines, and everything is presented as if it's an admittance fee and that you have to pay. They are not being presented as suggested donations, and they are making people feel pressured or obliged to pay," Kerr said.

Notorious potty-mouth and obscenity-mongerer Sarah Silverman is infamous for her role in urging people to elect her socialist idol Barack Obama in a 2008 video called “The Great Schlep,” but she's also chipped away at common American decency in her notably vile standup act and her propagandist Comedy Central show, “The Sarah Silverman Show.” This year, she'll further corrupt America's youth with the animated movie “Wreck-It Ralph” and...

Doesn't it seem like we were just going through this? Other than a couple of surprises during these campaigns, it's been basically the same as always. The constant competition between two sides made to seem like it is life-or-death jammed down our throats. The thing that really gets me is between the two sides, there is so much in common. I mean, in the end, we all come from the same place. We share so many values, opinions, even tastes in food. We share pride in where we come from and who we are. But this one small choice of whom we side with turns us into hate-filled, name-calling monsters.

Let's get something out of the way real quick - sports, in the grand scheme of things, do not matter. They're a welcome diversion from life's trials and tribulations, sure. But while you might think your life would change forever if the Cubs were to win the World Series tomorrow, it wouldn't. You wouldn't suddenly be better-looking, better at your job or have fewer bills to pay. You'd simply be happy for a couple of days. Which brings us to the topic du jour of the sports world: Ozzie Guillen, a prominent figure in the world of sports (which - again - don't matter)